Honors continue for local Tuskegee Airman

 Caitlin Kollar  
Created: 4/1/2007 6:56:10 PM
Updated:4/1/2007 7:25:52 PM

OAKWOOD VILLAGE -- This week the country watched as President Bush honored the Tuskegee Airmen, presenting the first black fighter pilots with the Congressional Gold Medal.
It's an honor long overdue for one of the airmen from Cleveland, Corporal Roy Richardson, 1,000 other Tuskegee pilots and 19,000 support personnel.

The honors continued Sunday for Richardson in Oakwood Village, where he lives. Richardson received hugs of appreciation at Mt. Zion of Oakwood Village Church.

The honors, including the Congressional Medal, were a long time in coming.

Roy Richardson was one of the Tuskegee Airmen, recruited during the second World War to form the Army Air Corps' first all black combat unit.
Born in Cleveland, Richardson was the only African American assigned to the 91st Strategic Air Command.

But he and his fellow Tuskegee Airmen faced more than the enemy in Europe, they faced racism at home.

But as the years passed, so did the realization of what the Tuskegee Airmen did for our country.
When President Bush presented them with the gold medal, it was a welcome recognition of what they had endured.

Richardson lives in Oakwood Village and says he's also grateful that his health is good and he's still able to get around well.


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http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:vf4Rpri-XiMJ:home.hiram.edu/tuskegeeairmen/airplane_ride_day.htm+roy+richardson+tuskegee&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us

Original Tuskegee Airmen Active in the North Coast Chapter - Cleveland, Ohio

 

These men volunteered to serve their country during World War II.  Segregationist policies by the U.S. War Department denied them combat experience.  However, they fought an equally important battle while at home.  They met and defeated the racism encountered almost daily from superior officers and others in the U.S. Army Air Corp.  Their battle against ignorance and hatred continues to this day.      

Roy S. Richardson   Corporal, US Army Air Corp.  1948-1950

Mr. Richardson took basic training at Lackland Field, Texas. He was assigned to the 332^nd Fighter Group at Lockbourne Field, Columbus, Ohio under the command of Lt. Col. Benjamin O. Davis, Jr.  Mr. Richardson worked the flight line, pre-flighting, taxiing and performing aircraft maintenance. He played clarinet, tuba, piccolo and glockenspiel with the 766th Army Band.  Upon advice from 1^st Lieutenant Chappie James (who became the nation’s first black 4-star general) he applied for flight school but instead joined Chappie in Operation Happiness, a very popular USO tour that entertained servicemen across the U.S. and the world. After the Armed Forces integrated, Mr. Richardson transferred to the Smokey Hills B-29 Air Base in Kansas, with the 91^st Strategic Air Command.  Mr. Richardson left the service shortly after being transferred to Barksdale Air Base in Louisiana.  Back in Cleveland, he earned his pilots license at Horns Flying School at Chagrin Falls Airport in 1953. He joined other Tuskegee Airmen like Gilbert Cargill, Earl Lane and Buddy Johnston in forming the Aero 8 Flying Club, which owned a Piper Cub, Ercoupe, & a Cessna 172.

Local Man Among Tuskegee Airmen To Receive Highest Honor

POSTED: 8:07 am EDT March 29, 2007
UPDATED: 9:35 am EDT March 29, 2007

WASHINGTON -- The Tuskegee Airmen are being honored at the highest levels today.

Sixty years ago, they came home from World War II to a country that discriminated against them because they were black.

Images: Local Tuskegee Airmen

The legendary black aviators will receive a Congressional Gold Medal during a ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda.

Roy Richardson will be one of several northeast Ohio Tuskegee Airmen to receive special citations from Congress and the President in Washington.

The Tuskegee Airmen were recruited into an Army Air Corps program on orders from President Franklin D. Roosevelt but were met with skepticism and racism. They amassed an impressive record of success escorting bombers on missions in Europe.

The medal for the airmen was made possible through legislation co-sponsored by U.S. Senator Carl Levin of Michigan.

It will go to the Smithsonian Institution for display. Individual airmen will get bronze replicas.

NewsChannel5's Leon Bibb is in Washington to provide special coverage of the Congressional Medal Ceremony.

The Plain Dealer

Today's event bittersweet for local WWII veterans

Thursday, March 29, 2007
Brian Albrecht
Plain Dealer Reporter

The old Tuskegee Airmen smiled when asked about the Congressional Gold Medal that their unit will receive in Washington today for battles fought both in combat and on the home front more than 60 years ago.

But it was usually a bittersweet smile that creased the faces worn by the passage of time and the bygone days of segregation.

"It's a nice honor, but it's a little late," said Clarence Jamison, 89, of Shaker Heights, who was among the first Tuskegee fighter pilots in the Army's all-black air squadrons that fought in World War II.

"My only problem with it is that there are lots of fellows who've died in the meantime. There's no recognition given to them," he added.

Then, shrugging in a leather flight jacket reminiscent of his old P-40 fighter days and subsequent 22-year Air Force career, Jamison joked, "But I can't say too much, or they won't give it [the medal] to me."

Jamison won't let his misgivings keep him from being in Washington for presentation of the highest civilian award bestowed by the federal legislature since 1776 to recognize the outstanding achievements of individuals or institutions.

Congressional leaders along with President Bush and former Secretary of State Colin Powell will participate in the ceremony.

Jamison will be joined by three of the five other local Tuskegee Airmen who nowadays move slowly, carefully -- perhaps mindful of preserving the role they played so long ago without gold-medal rewards -- and proud in their blue-blazer "uniforms" and caps of the North Coast Chapter of Tuskegee Airmen Inc.

"It's fine, but what took them so long?" asked James Travis, 84, of Cleveland, with a smile. That smile. Belated bemusement mixed with pride.

When U.S. Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan introduced legislation two years ago authorizing presentation of the latest award, he noted that although the aviators had already received honors including three Presidential Unit Citations, "I believe the Tuskegee Airmen deserve one more medal."

He continued, "They were unique not only for their outstanding combat record, but also for the inspirational example they set that paved the way for full racial integration of America's armed forces."

Expected at today's ceremony are about 300 of the nearly 1,000 pilots and upwards of 19,000 support personnel who were part of the Tuskegee program from 1941 to 1949.

The fliers are named for an airfield at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, where black recruits got their initial training before going to other military bases for additional instruction and, at times, confrontations with the prejudice and racism of a segregated service system.

During the war, Tuskegee Airmen shot down or damaged 409 enemy aircraft while flying more than 15,000 sorties over North Africa and Europe. Some 150 fliers were killed in training or combat.

As the Tuskegee fighter pilots battled overseas, black bomber squadrons were being formed back home and often fought their own war for a first-class opportunity to die as second-class citizens.

"The hardest part was overcoming the prejudice," said Arthur Saunders, 86, a Cleveland architect who trained with the 477th Medium Bombardment Group. "There was a great effort [by the military] to make it difficult for us by creating unnecessary problems, with the intent of making us fail."

Saunders believed that attitude lingered even after the war and desegregation of the services, delaying national recognition of the Tuskegee Airmen.

The medal is nonetheless appreciated, if long overdue, according to Saunders. "Finally, America is respecting what we attempted to do in World War II," he said.

"We're very proud of it [the medal], of course. It means a great deal," he added. "The Tuskegee Airmen aren't angry, have never been angry. It's just that they had to continue to fight very hard, but that's true of black people in America."

Thomas Austin, 90, of Cleveland, a Tuskegee aircraft mechanic and crew chief who worked at General Motors Corp. after the war, said he and other airmen never expected a gold medal for their service.

"We were there to do the best job we could because a lot of people worked so hard, stuck their necks way out, to get this [program] going," he said. "So we couldn't fail."

Edward Lunda, 83, a former Tuskegee bombardier/navigator who later worked for the city of Akron, should have good reason to be bitter about his service after being arrested with 100 other Tuskegee Airmen for trying to enter a segregated officers club at a base in Indiana. (The charges were later dropped.)

Yet he said, "I'm proud, just really proud, to receive an award like that."

Tuskegee Airman Roy Richardson, 77, of Oakwood -- who traded a once-hoped-for service career for one in construction after he said military segregation "left a raw taste in my mouth" -- also noted, "It [the award] is 66 years late, but I'm still kind of thrilled about it."

There also can be a personal reward that the airmen got long before this medal. Travis said his experience in the Tuskegee program, preceding an accounting career at Standard Oil, "definitely made a lot of difference in my life."

He said he's proud of the attitude he developed at Tuskegee -- that "no one can stop you from doing what you want to do, if you really want to do it.

"They thought we would fail, but we didn't," he added. "We did what we had to do, and we were very successful at it."

And that statement comes with a genuine smile.